In 2004, Tom retired after a 25-year career as Assistant Forest Archaeologist for Six Rivers National Forest. At the time we were living off the grid on 25 acres in the backcountry of southern Humboldt County. We designed and built a small redwood cabin in the late 1970’s, and in the late 1990’s, a separate two-story outbuilding complete with music studio, guestroom suite, and office. Solar panels, deep charge batteries, and an inverter provided the electrical power to run our entire household. 

In 2005, SolarArch was established as a cultural resources consulting firm, and over the next decade Tom completed a number of cultural resources projects under contract with the U.S. Forest Service. We were at the time one of the few, if not the only, cultural resources consulting firm powered by the sun; hence the name SolarArch our slogan “Shining Light on the Past.” In early 2009,  Hélène designed the SolarArch website.

In the fall of 2009, after living in southern Humboldt for 32 years, we moved to Three Rivers, California located about 60 miles southeast of Fresno.  The house was situated on four acres of land just to the west of the entrance to Sequoia National Park with its giant redwoods, and the 12,000 foot peaks of the Great Western Divide.  For the last 14 years Tom has continued his four decades-long research project on the environmental history of the North Fork Eel River region. The research has resulted in many of the papers and documents found on the web-site.  Many of the papers focus on the changes to the landscape and ecology of the region resulting from human land-use activities during the Holocene. 

In 2023 we decided it was time to downsize as it was getting to be too much to keep up four acres and a large two story house. In April we sold our place and we bought a house in Desert Hot Springs at the far northern end of the Coachella Valley.  It is the first time we have lived in “the big city” in over 45 years so it will be a new and challenging experience–the good news is that it is no longer an hour and 20 minute drive to Trader Joe’s! 

As Tom continues his research, he has added several papers to the web site.  We remain in contact with old friends living in Humboldt County and Tom still makes an occasional camping trip up to the remote Yolla Bolly country to do additional research.  We hope that you find the books, papers, and articles on our website interesting and useful.